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LETTERS 



ADDRKSSKD TO 



Hon. JAMES BUCHANAN, 

]Jrtsibcnl of Ibc (iIuKcb States, 
JANUARY IOtii AND UJiir, 18G1, 

ON THK 

DENYING THE RIGHT OF SECESSION, 

ADVOCATING MEASURES 

TO SECURE TORTUGAS, KEY ^VEST AND FORTRESS MONROE, 

— BY — 

CHARLES WAED. 




SALEM : 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE SALEM GAZETTE. 

1866. 



A A. ^) 



LETTERS 



Salem, (Mass.), Jax'y lOxir, 18G1. 

Hon. James Buchanan, President ) 
of the United States. i 

Deak Sir : 

The events in the political history of our country are at 
the present moment of the most serious and complex character ; such 
as heretofore no Administration of the General Government has had 
to contend with. When the i)rcsent aspect of affairs is compared 
with tho nullification of South Carolina in 1832, under the adminis- 
tration of our beloved Jackson, his cabinet were a unit, and neither 
were other southern states in sympathy with South Carolina in her 
nullification. General Jackson, as President of the United States, did 
not think of politics or party, but acted as the sworn President of a 
united government, and determined by all the force at his command 
that the revenues should be collected, and while acting on that idea, 
and carrying it out, he made a patriotic appeal to South Carolina, 
which with his demonstrations of earnest purpose had the effect of 
bringing that state to a realizing sense of her error, and consequent 
submission to the higher law of the confederacy. 

And I may take this opportunity to say, as I believe your Excel- 
lency will admit, that there is no higher law to which our States can 
submit than the Constitution and Laws of the United States ; and 
these must govern under all circumstances. These laws of the United 
States, enacted by Congress, and which are constitutional, as declared 
by our United States Court, must be the law of the land, and be 
maintained by all the force and vigor which the President has at his 
command. 



Now, in the present complex state of aft'airs between North and 
South, the present outbreak of secession is unjustifiable for the follow- 
ing reason : Until some Congressional act shall have been consum- 
mated by which the original compact is broken, and Southern Rights 
invaded by Congressional Law, there can be no justification of the 
hostile attitude of South Carolina and other Southern States. These 
States, as States, might well have calmly set forth their grievances 
against the Northern States, and patriotically appealed to Congress to 
give them their just rights by an alteration of the Constitution, or 
calling a convention of States for that purpose. The Slave States do 
not, as I understand, utter any complaints against the government for 
any laws enacted by Congress. Why not then seek their remedy for 
their real and supposed grievances by Constitutional means ? At 
present it seems that the South are governed by the wildest passions. 
Calmness and reason have no place ; and thus in madness they would 
destroy our beautiful republic. Yet the South are not -without their 
host of honorable and union loving men ; and I do not doubt that if 
a fair expression of sentiment could be had in the Southern States, 
without threats and intimidation, their votes would be largely in favor 
of Union. 

Lnder present circumstances, since the assembling of Congress, I 
have seen how indifferently they have regarded the recommendations 
in your annual message, and an apparent indifference to the crisis of 
our National aft'airs, and but little concern for the perpetuity of the 
union, and tlie unity of our confederate states. 

I regret the present agitated state of the country. Our Govern- 
ment was founded hy wise and patriotic men. Slavery then existed, 
and yet they harmonized. And the South and the North lived in har- 
mony, and our new Republic flourished. Each State of the then con- 
federacy understood their respective rights, and so each State acted on 
those rights, and our country expanded in industry, commerce and 
manufactures, and we have become a great nation. But the men of 
to-day claim to be wiser than our fathers, who formed and gave life 
and vitality to our confederacy. 

The heart of our people is right in the mass, and if they have in 
their sovereignty given a majority of their votes to the Republican 
candidate for the Presidency, the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, I as a Dem- 
ocrat acquiesce in that decision, recognizing the will of the people, and 
your Excellency has also perceived the indifference of the vote of the 



South ftr our National Democratic candidate for the same lionors, 
Hon. John C. Breckinridge. Witliout going into politics, Mr. Presi- 
dent, for you know far more than I can know about the issues of the 
two contending political parties, I am willing to leave all in your 
hands, feeling assured that you have not only reflected on all these 
matters, "but have bent your best energies to allay the troubles of 
Southern agitation. The course you have pursued to prevent Revo- 
lution and Civil War is in my opinion just and wise. I had fondly 
hoped the calm and dispaesionate appeal you made to Congress, rec- 
ommending certain alterations to the Constitution, and thus taking the 
question of slavery forever out of Congress, would have been res- 
ponded to promptly — but it now seems that party strife has a higher 
power than patriotism. 

Besides, Mr. President, I fully appreciate the trials you have had to 
contend with in your Cabinet Ministers. Of those who have with- 
drawn I regret none except the venerable Gen. Cass ; as for the others 
I regard them as in full sympathy with the secessionists, and traitors 
to the United States, and from my heart, I could wish that they had 
been arrested and tried for High Treason. 

For the few remaining weeks that you remain in office I know how 
much your patriotic heart will throb in view of the peril of our con- 
federacy, and I am surprised at the apparent apathy of our leading 
statesmen, in view of our impending dissolution. Is it possible that 
our Union is to be dissolved ? Oh, that the spirit of our fathers 
could animate our representatives and senators. 

There is much I would like to say, but I know your time is fully 
occupied, and I can only offer you my earnest sympathy in your la- 
bors and trials, with the hope that you will retire from your official 
position with a full consciousness that you have discharged your ^^■ilole 
duty in the fear of God and love of your country. 

Permit me also to call your attention to the enclosed list of Ship- 
ping at New Orleans, and also to the list of ships bound there ; with 
a probability that an almost equal number are also bound there which 
are not reported in the list. Now, Mr. President, what measures 
can you take to preserve our commerce at Neiv Orleans? Will you 
not please give this important port your consideration ? Within sixty 
days many ships from Pluropean ports will be at New Orleans. Is it 
not of the highest importance that these ships should be protected ? 
These ships have cargoes which they arc bound to deliver, and without 



tlie protection of the Government what are our Northern Ship Owners 

to do ? This port is the most important of all our Southern ports. 

And ship owners must rely upon Government to protect their shipping. 

Witli due apology for obtruding on the time of your Excellency, 

I remain, Dear Sir, 

Your Very Ob't. Servant, 
[signed] CHARLES WARD. 

A true Copy Iroiii ilie i)rigiiii>l at tlit' lime wIrmi wriltfu. 

Attest : 

Henry M. Bkooks. 



Salem, (Mass.,) IGth Jan'y, 1861. 

To His Excellency, James Buchanan, ^ 
President of the United States. ) 

Dear Sir : 

I had the honor to address you on the 10th inst : since 
which time I notice the seizure of United States forts and arsenals in 
" Alabama" and " Louisiana" and forts and navy yard in " Florida." 
These seizures though unlawful may be regarded as harmless in a cer- 
tain point of view. Yet in connection with this movement I have no 
doubt that your E.Kcellency, the Secretary at War, and the comman- 
der in Chief Lieut. Gen'l. Scott, have, in view of a further impending 
crisis, determined at all hazards to reinforce Key Wed and Tortugas' 
The importance of these posts you have no doubt considered. 

The great stand point of all seceding states will be South Carolina 
— the port and harbor of Charleston — and on this will depend the 
ulterior conduct of other states in secession. As in my former letter 
I commended you for the policy you had pursued up to that time, so 
now, as matters arc being further developed, I beg leave to say, that it 
was justifiable on the part of the Government not to seem to resent the 
insult of South Caroliua for committing an aggression on the " Star of 
the West" in entering Charleston harbor, in the hope that other seced- 
ing states would generously recognize the forbearance of the Govern- 
ment and thus produce a reaction of the Secession movement. But 
permit me to say tliat if the telegraphic reports are correct, the new 



Commissioners of South Ciirolina, now at Wasiiinj^ton, have presented 
an nltimatum to the Executive — " Ihe abandonment nf Fort Sumter to 
South Carolina" — then, by all means Mr. President, I would counsel 
you to be as firm as adamant. First, if in point of Law they could 
be arrested as traitors, they should be so arrested — then relieve and 
reinforce Fort Sumter at all hazards, and if the Batteries on Morris 
Island or Fort Moultrie fire the first gun, then let Fort Sumter and 
your vessels of war reply. But, Mr. President, this extreme course 
would "be only to relieve Fort Sumter, and I would not by any means 
fire a shot into the city of Charleston, unless ulterior events should 
seem to justify doing so. Further, Mr. President, I am pleased that 
you, through Gen'l. Scott, have taken measures to protect the City of 
Washington from surprise or capture on the eve of your retirement 
from the Presidency. This course I conceive to be of the highest 
importance. You as the Chief Magistrate, must exercise your full 
powers to deliver the Government to your successor intact — then let 
the new President take the responsibility. 

In this connection I beg your indulgence to make one or two other 
suggestions. First, by all means take prompt measures to secure the 
Navy Yard at Portsmouth Va., and all the Forts commanding Norfolk 
and Point Comfort. Here, after all, may be the pitched battle of the 
Secessionists. Point and direct everything to your successor's advan- 
tage, not so much on his personal account, or that of his party, but as 
your bounden duty, and that yoicr own record may he pure in history. 
You have served the country and government for many years, and I do 
not and have never doubted your patriotism. You have had a large 
experience in every public office which a confiding constituency could 
bestow, and a confiding united people completed in your elevation to 
the Presidency. 

Though an unknown citizen to you, yet for thirty years I have been 
an unswerving Democrat. I love my President. I love the North and 
the South ; and in this unnatiu-al rebellion, while I sympathise with the 
South for all the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of Northern 
Abolitionists, yet I do not and cannot justify them in their present 
determination to overthrow the Government. As for the predominant 
Northern sentiment of Anti-Slavery, I detest it, and I do not consider . 
that the Republican party have one single principle to stand upon in 
opposition to the democratic party except that of Abolitionism. As 
for the temper of Congress I am disgusted. There are a few good 



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men — but if the majority were drowned in the Potomac, the country 
would be safe. 

One other point — the city of New York is a conglomerated mass of 
all sorts of men, Americans and Foreigners of every description. In 
the present excited state of the Country, and with the knowledge that 
citizens and foreigners have notoriously aided and abetted the Slave 
trade to a large extent, and that this class of people are in sympathy 
with the South, and with their heretofore fdibustering proclivities, it 
would be well to fully garrison all the forts in the harbor, and to exer- 
cise a strict surveillance by the United States Marshal, or other proper 
officers, to prevent the transport of arms, ammunition or recruits, for 
the rebellious states ; though I doubt and mistrust Marshal Rynders, 
and do not believe him to be a trustworthy officer in the emergency. 

Mr. President, I am frank in my opinions, and honest in my ex- 
pressions, and if in anything, or in any manner, I have expressed my- 
self unseemly, you will, I am sure, attribute it to an error of judgment. 

With blessings on yourself, and an honorable retirement from your 
present high and exalted position as President of the United States, 

I remain your humble and obedient servant, 

[Signed] CHARLES WARD. 

A true copy from the original at tlie time when written. 

Henry M. Brooks. 



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